Germán Vega is 49 years old and in 2005 he had an accident while snowboarding on Cerro Catedral.

Until then, he worked in a clothing store and collaborated with handicapped children whom he trained to run marathons.

The accident completely changed his life.

“At 1:00 p.m. I closed the store and at 1:05 p.m. I ran up to the Hill. One day I closed and went snowboarding with some friends. The weather was bad. I jumped a small ramp, it was very simple, but I fell on my back and I felt the electricity in the body. I felt my legs were on my face and I said to them ” I broke my spine,'” he recalls. now country for channel 3.

Indeed, the fall caused Germán a spinal cord injury and due to the bottom of the navel he does not feel or have any mobility.

“It changed everything for me. I didn’t go back to the business, I went to my hometown, La Plata, they operated on me and then I came back. I was taking care of people and the clothes were coming to them in a wheelchair rolling,” he said.

Before his accident, Germán also took disabled children skiing, whom he trained to run marathons, and that is why, when the season started again, he decided to go skiing again.

He started doing it on a monoski, a chair with a seat and a single ski underneath, with the help of a few Canadians. “From this season I started skiing for 12 consecutive years and from there they gave me the opportunity to take the conventional ski course,” he said.

Germán was encouraged, took the course and became the first wheelchair instructor to teach skiing to people with and without disabilities.

“The truth is, I loved it and it’s amazing to be able to be an instructor practicing my passion, especially after so many years,” he said.

And he reflected: “It was a great joy that I had to live after the accident and to this day I continue to teach and I can teach the method to the unemployed, sitting down and applying a new methodology “.

“One of my students comes in a wheelchair and we learn to ski in three or four days and they go skiing. It was so difficult for me and at that time there were five or six of us and this year I taught another five so we are twice as much”, valued.

“We and the human being always remain in the why, why did this happen to me and in reality, you have to ask yourself why did this happen to me”, he mentions. With this philosophy of life, he assures us that what has happened to him is to be able to transmit and teach people that they can project themselves and find other opportunities.

“I always say to those who have an unexpected change due to an accident, not to worry, that life is good and there are many things to come. I am a totally happy person, I can tell you secure it,” he concluded.

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Finally, he commented that with the way he skis he acquires a lot of speed and that life has given him the opportunity to do this with his children.

“I’m happy as I am, I’m happy in a wheelchair. Obviously at the beginning, like any human reaction, I asked myself ‘how am I going to continue to live’, if I was going to have a girlfriend, kids and I met a girl and now I have three kids I do homework with and take to school The only thing I can’t do is change a light bulb in my house , the rest everything”, he concluded.

Interview with Rodolfo Barili